Air heaters that use infrared lamps have been around for years, and are typically broken into two different categories: the first category is for space heaters that heat an open air space, and the second category is for “enclosed” heaters that attempt to heat portions of a chamber or specimens within a chamber. Examples of space heaters are U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,535 (by Martin), U.S. Pat. No. 4,197,447 (by Jones), U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,582 (by Covault), and U.S. Pat. No. 3,278,722 (by Fannon).
Examples of enclosed heaters using electric light bulbs (including infrared light sources) are U.S. Pat. No. 6,868,680 (by Sakuma), U.S. Pat. No. 6,667,111 (by Sikka), U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,427 (by Burkett), U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,663 (by Lee), U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,805 (by Fannon), U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,333 (by Tarrant), U.S. Pat. No. 2,607,877 (by Stevens), and U.S. Pat. No. 2,527,013 (by Kjelgaard). Some of these conventional “chamber” heaters are designed to heat objects or specimens that are placed within the heater, however, the walls or other types of interior surfaces of the heater are themselves not designed to be raised in temperature to any significant amount. Others of these conventional chamber heaters are designed to have some of their interior surfaces raised in temperature, but those same interior surfaces are painted black or otherwise made of a black material, so that they act as a “black body” to re-radiate the thermal energy into the surrounding air.